Filling Up On “Empties”

To the untrained eye, my bathroom looks like a small beauty supply store. Did I immediately add four wall shelves when I moved in to house the overflow of products that wouldn’t fit in my medicine cabinet? Yes, I did. Do I also have a freestanding cabinet in a weird little corner for additional product storage? Yes, I do. Is half the linen closet in the hallway dedicated to even more storage? Yes, it is. Can you also find boxes of products hiding under my bed in organized chaos? Yes, you can.

Part of the problem — and yes, this is a problem, one I fully admit to and own — is that I like trying new things and one of the perks of writing about self-care is that I simply must try everything. But the other part of the problem lies in the fact that testing so much stuff means that I rarely get to finish any of it. Once I’m convinced of a product’s efficacy (or decide it’s a “no” from me), I move onto the next.

So when I do get to the bottom of a bottle, it’s a big deal. It means I like something so much that it’s earned a prime spot in my medicine cabinet and won’t be relegated to the “put this under the bed” or “pass to a friend” storage spots in the house. It also means I’m more likely to recommend and repurchase, that it’s earned a space in my Forever RoutineTM.

You won’t catch me on social holding up a bag of all the empty bottles I’ve saved and walking you through each one (though if you ask really nicely…), but reflecting on empties is a love letter to the products we’ve enjoyed so much we’re both happy and sad when we hit bottom. To honor our empties, here’s a roundup of some of the things y’all have loved so much that they’re consistently top-rated and top-sellers, and the rankings don’t look like they’re budging anytime soon.